One of the most remarkable fields of human invention and progress in the last century has been the development of the electronics industry, especially as applicable to communications and data processing. Electronic processing components progressed from vacuum tubes, to transistors to very large scale integrated circuits and the like. This evolution has lead to electronic devices that are both more powerful and more compact. Concomitant with the use of electronic devices is thermal energy created by those devices. Heat, arising from electrical power throughput in these devices acts as a limit upon their ability to perform. This is especially true in digital circuitry.
As a result of the generation of heat, there became a need for dissipating that heat into the external environment. Indeed, in high power applications, water cooling jackets and refrigeration units were used to exhaust excess heat from electronic equipment. However, such high capacitance cooling systems are not compatible with portable devices. Thus, as technology has developed smaller and more powerful electronic circuits that generate more heat in small space, the volume and weight allocated for structures used in thermal management has become a significant factor of the total system volume and weight. Thermal management requirements can thus impact on the performance, reliability, cost and system logistics.
Existing heat dissipation devices are typically in the form of heat sinks. These devices include a base plate in thermal communication with the heat-producing electrical component. A series of fins extend from the base plate so that heat produced by the component may be conducted by the metal throughout the structure. The fins are employed to increase the surface area so that the waste heat may be dissipated to the surrounding air. However, since air is essentially an insulator, there are some limitations on the spacings of the fins of the metal heat sinks as well as size and volume restrictions.
Accordingly, there is a need for new and improved materials, devices and methods for thermally dissipating heat, especially from electronic components. There is a further need for heat sinks of higher efficiency in conducting and dissipating heat. A need exists for heat sinks which have increased thermal dissipative ability in smaller volumes. There is also a need for heat sinks having reduced costs in production and use. The invention is directed to meeting these needs.